enabling JavaScript with Netscape 4.79 on HP-UX 10.20 with no internet connection

[Anne Frank]

I'm trying to find information to get Java running with Netscape on a system which I cannot connect to the internet for security reasons. We have no HP systems here connected to the net. I have HP-UX 10.20, all of the appropriate patches for the Java Run-time Environment (jre). I've installed jre 1.1.8 and Netscape 4.79, which is the latest HP-UX 10.20 version available.

According to the release notes for jre 1.1.8, the first time the Netscape browser loads an applet from a Runtime plug-in for HP-UX HTML page, it will download and install the Runtime Plug-in for HP-UX. Thereafter, the plug-in is used for other Runtime Plug-in for HP-UX enabled HTML pages.

My fairly obvious problem is that my system cannot do the download, so I need to find out what it is that needs to be downloaded, how to configure it so that it doesn't need to do this one-time step, and hopefully that will resolve my problem. The symptom of the problem is that none of the JavaScript menus in any of our online documentation work.

Any help or pointers to places where I might receive help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Anne Frank
Electric Boat

[Steven E. Protter]

The default installation of netscape enables java script.

If for some reason its been turned off, go to edit preferences off the main menu.

Then advanced.

Check the appropirate java boxes.

P

[Gregory Fruth]

Does your online help system use Java or
JavaScript (or both)? Java and JavaScript
are separate (but somewhat related)
components.

AFAIK, the complete JavaScript component
comes built into Navigator, though you may
have to explicitly enable it in the Preferences
dialog (Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced ->
Enable JavaScript).

Java, on the other hand, often must be
installed separately. Since you've already
done that, make sure it's enabled in
Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced ->
Enable Java. Also, I believe that if the
Java plugin is properly installed it should
show up in the list on the about:plugins
page (Help -> About Plug-ins).

Good luck!

[Anne Frank]

Thanks for the responses. I've verified that I had already done what you suggested, but I am certain that something is not quite right. I am guessing that an environment variable is not set correctly because the box to allow me to enable Java plug-ins is unmanaged so I cannot select it.

I have figured out how to install the plug-ins from the Java Run-Time package without being connected to the net. I am definitely not configured correctly, however, because when I run the included ControlPanel.html file, it allows me to configure Java, but when I load one of our user's manuals, it defaults to the Java included with Netscape. This became apparent when I simultaneously had the Java consoles from Netscape and the Java 1.1.8 packages up. I set them both to debug and the Netscape one was the active one.

Ann

[Steven E. Protter]

Do you have an internal web site to connect to?

http://www.hp.com/go/java

Click a java release and then make sure you have all the patches installed.

Miss one, and you could have issues.

P

[Rick Beldin]

If you go to the URL line and type:

about:plugins

You should get a page that shows the plugins that are loaded for that instance of the browser.

What does that show?

[Gregory Fruth]

Hmm, perhaps you need to tinker with
the CLASSPATH, NPX_PLUGIN_PATH
or MOZILLA_HOME environment
variables. Try setting CLASSPATH and
NPX_PLUGIN_PATH to the directories
containing the desired Java and plugin
packages, respectively. The README
that comes with Netscape gives some
info on these variables.

Good luck!

[Anne Frank]

Thanks for all of the help. I went back over everything I did, verified all the patches were applied, verified all software was installed in all the right places and went through all of the release notes.

I found 2 things. I forgot to add /opt/java/bin to PATH and I had a typo in CLASSPATH which made one of the .jar files inaccessible. When I resolved those problems, it still seemed to not be working, except for one time when I loaded one of the lower level pages and then the main menu... which made no sense at all.

At that point I remembered reading something in release notes that said Netscape/Java sometimes hang when run with different display software, and I'm using Hummingbird's Exceed to remote login to the HP network from a PC and run a CDE session. So I tried using one of our workstations directly, since we're having a blizzard and the lab is deserted. Poof!!! Up came my user's manual!!!

Since this manual only has to work on our deployed systems which have workstations, it looks like my job is done.

Thanks for all the assistance.

Ann